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Monday, April 9, 2012

Oh Facebook...

If this blog post is shared 99,999,999 times, this kitten will finally catch that annoying red laser dot!

Normally I'm quite a passive person but there is just one thing that drives me crazy these days. If you have a Facebook account you probably have seen the "10,000 likes and this baby will get a free heart transplant!" pictures (or things of similar nature, usually involving small children or puppies). There is just so much wrong with these pictures. Right, I know some pictures are shared out of good heart, to perhaps spread a message or raise awareness. But... here goes

Why these shared photos are just wrong
1) 99% of the pictures are taken out of context and set in a fake backstory used to manipulate its audience. An old dog simply recovering from surgery can be twisted around to say it was abused. This causes a lot of people to jump the gun without making any sort of logical connection or even taking out the time to investigate.

2) Sharing or liking doesn't do anything. There is no doctor cruel enough to say, "hey, normally I don't do this but if this picture of your baby gets shared 100,000 times, I will do her surgery for free!". As with those "every share is 5 cents for (name of charity)", it has been confirmed that every single one of these are fake. There is no money being made for anyone (even the ones that are "sponsored by Facebook").

3) Blind-sighted ego boosts. Yes, no doubt there were loads of people who shared these pictures with good intent. But it seems to make people think that anyone who doesn't share it with all their friends is the spawn of Satan who hates little dogs. And that somehow their karma check for the day has been accomplished.

I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me at this somewhat harsh look at what seems like harmless photo-sharing, but having seen too many of these, I felt like I had to rant about it.